February 29, 2008

"A traditional occupation associated with Gypsy Travellers has been the production of clothes pegs. Pegs were traditionally made from willow, a material which was plentiful and easy to work. The bark was removed, the branch was cut to size and a band was placed around the top before the willow was split. The split willow kept the clothes on the line."

Molas & Co emerges as the desire to make mechanical toys (aka automata).
The idea to create simple automata from a clothes peg was first explored by automata maker Rodney Peppé in his book "Making Mechanical Toys". In Molas & Co, I follow Rodney Peppé's own invitation to explore the clothes peg spring mechanism, and present you with my own (still very simple)designs.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy making them!